It’s a fact; home-cooked meals are gaining in popularity. In fact, Quebecers’ cooking skills are improving.
Eating well is now a major concern for consumers. They want healthy, quality products, and their concerns no longer stop at their own well-being. The health of the planet and that of species are also increasingly important.
Thus, in 2023, one in three people wanted to reduce their meat consumption, and 37% of Quebecers wanted to increase their consumption of plant proteins.
Quebecers’ concerns regarding food issues (2023)
In general, the cost of living has risen.
Variation in food prices in Quebec, between 2022 and 2023
Although we may be willing to spend more for a quality product, the primary criterion for consumers remains price.
And the good news?
Seafood products are seeing lower price increases than other food products. Would this be a good reason to add them to your menu?
Introducing new species is all well and good, but in practical terms, it is not so easy to change your eating habits, is it?
Sometimes new ingredients can seem intimidating because we do not know how to cook them or what to serve with them. What is more, we do not even know if we will like them.
You have probably heard the expression, “The hardest part is getting started.” I promise, once you have taken the first step, you will see that it is not as scary as it seems.
Do not hesitate to ask around for advice. Inquire at the fish market, in a restaurant, from friends, and then… go for it!
Video length: 6 minutes
Location and shooting date: Quebec, 2023
Excerpt from interviews conducted by: Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologist
Videographer and editor: Guillaume Lévesque, Les productions de la Morue Salée
Interviewees:
Crdit: Exploramer, 2024
[Background music, successive underwater shots of various seaweeds.]
Lucie Beaulieu: There was one project I was really interested in doing, in developing, and that was a project on algae and nutrition, and then getting all the way to the consumer.
[Shot of Lucie Beaulieu talking in a kitchen.]
In fact, what happened was that, in discussing the matter with my colleagues and then with a chef, we said to ourselves, “How can we help people to eat more seaweed on a daily basis?”.
[Successive shots of packets of dried seaweed.]
In our research project, we held culinary workshops.
[Back to Lucie, music stops.]
A hundred or so participants were recruited from the general public. Obviously, it was people who were curious about algae who answered the call. And so, there was a control group and a group who experienced the culinary workshop with the chef. The control group received a gift pack.
[Successive shots of seaweed products.]
They received packages of seaweed with recipes. And the others had the chance to do the culinary workshop with a master chef like Jean Soulard.
[Background music resumes.]
[Successive shots of Jean Soulard in the kitchen and participants in the culinary workshops.]
So, how did it work? Participants were asked to complete a survey about their consumption of seaweed, but also about cooking in general, whether they liked to cook, and so forth.
[Back to Lucie talking, background music stops.]
So, there was a survey before the workshop. And after 2 months, we did another survey to see if they had incorporated seaweed into their menus. And we were able to show that, yes, it did help. Having been introduced to seaweeds, and then having a chef show them how to cook with them, encouraged people to eat them. And people’s self-confidence grew as they began to make seaweed-based recipes.
[Background music resumes.]
[Various shots of Jean Soulard and Lucie in the kitchen preparing a recipe for seaweed and chickpeas.]
So, initially, people might have been a little afraid of having a bag of seaweed and thinking, “What can I do with this?”. And so, by providing them with recipes or “coaching” them with a chef, they were able to develop their skills in cooking with seaweed.
Jean Soulard: When you’re doing something new, obviously, anything new is “with the brakes on”.
[Shot of Jean talking in a kitchen, background music stops.]
But you explain it to them, first you demonstrate with the seaweed, and then they go off and do what you’ve shown them. And I always say “Dare”.
[Back to Jean and Lucie, in the kitchen.]
A kid will give it a try, just for fun. Then, for a bit of bravado with their buddy “Yeah, this is good stuff”.
[Back to Jean talking.]
But adults have been accustomed to tastes for 20, 30, and 40 years. So, you bring them a new flavor and they say “Oh, I’m not sure”. But in all the workshops, you might say they didn’t dare say it in front of me, but I’ve seen them taste and then really go for it with a spoon, saying, “Yeah! Yeah, it’s worth it. Yeah, yeah, I’m going to try this at home”.
[Background music resumes.]
[Successive shots of Jean and Lucie in the kitchen.]
Véronique Provencher: What’s going to make us change? Often, it’s that we will have made an “x” realization.
[Shot of Véronique Provencher talking, seated outdoors.]
It could be about our health, it could be about the environment, what makes us want to make different choices. All of this can be linked to our values, for example. So, if health is a very important value for me, I’m going to prioritize it in my day-to-day choices. And then there’s our whole set of beliefs, what people around us say, too, which can lead us to change.
[Music stops.]
So, we’re going to… Human beings are… we’re social, so seeing, for example, our friends and family adopting new behaviors can lead us to do the same thing on our side. So, what’s the famous magic recipe for integrating a new habit or a new food? Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a magic bullet. But the key word, I’d say, is “step by step”. That means going a little bit at a time. We’re often very ambitious when we want to start something, and then we immediately want it to be perfect, and everything to be different. But in real life, we know that behavior changes don’t happen by snapping your fingers. So the idea is really to go for it, by perhaps incorporating a new food, a new ingredient, into our usual recipes from time to time; familiarizing ourselves with the taste. Then, afterwards, we’ll discover something else. We’ll want to elaborate further.
[Background music resumes, back to Lucie and Jean in the kitchen.]
Jean: Of course, we’ve all been around Gaspé, and the people…
Véronique: Cooking is a skill that is necessary to feed yourself. But it can be a challenge for some people who are less familiar with different food preparation methods.
[Back to Veronique talking.]
That’s why it’s a good strategy to further develop them. And even for young people, there are various initiatives to get them cooking, for example, in schools.
[Background music stops.]
There are also nutrition camps. We have one right here at the Institute, the Aliment’TERRE camp for youth. Here, they’ll learn about cooking and meal planning. That’s also an important skill. Know how to get information, choose the right… you know selecting the good products. So, these are all important skills for what we call food literacy; being able to make choices and then to manage, to be able to eat well.
[Background music resumes.]
[Back to Jean and Lucie in the kitchen, Jean puts a mauve flower as a finishing touch on a dish.]
Jean: Like this… Seaweed is an easy product to cook with. Except we don’t know what to do with it. So, people will say, “Well yes, but it’s easy for him, he’s a cook”.
[Shot of Jean from the front speaking to the camera.]
The answer is no! It’s easy to cook. You soak it in water, and then you work miracles. For a sauce, you put it in your blender, I assure you, it’s excellent.
[Exploramer logo and Réseau Québec Maritime logo.]
[Background music stops.]
Integrating new products into our diet requires a real effort, but Quebecers seem ready! Change on their tables has already begun.
What about you? Ready to take action?
This project was made possible through funding from Digital Museums Canada and the participation and collaboration of Université Laval.
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